Fewer teens working summer jobs

THE ISSUE: Roughly 44 percent of Massachusetts teens are working summer jobs, compared to more than 61 percent in 2000.

THE IMPACT: Teens who work summer jobs are more likely to develop marketable skills and enjoy long-term career success, according to some labor analysts.

Gerry Tuoti Wicked Local Newsbank Editor

Summer jobs are a thing of the past for more than half of Massachusetts teens.

The years-long decrease in youth summer employment is influenced by many factors, including labor market trends, economic conditions, societal changes and shifting education priorities, according to labor experts. A generation ago, most teens worked during the summer. Today teens with summer jobs are firmly in the minority.

“The development of those essential skills is key to folks’ long-term success,” said Susan Lange, the Commonwealth Corp.’s vice president for youth pathways. “If folks don’t work as a teen or young adult, it puts them at a disadvantage for long-term success.”

Last summer, 43.5 percent of Massachusetts teens ages 16 to 19 worked summer jobs, compared to 61.1 percent in 2000 and 66.3 percent in 1989, according to a May report from the Commonwealth Corporation and Drexel University. Teen summer employment in Massachusetts has historically been 7 to 10 percentage points higher than the national average, which has also experienced a downward trend over the past few decades.

Weary employers

The Commonwealth Corporation runs the publicly funded Youth Works program, which connects income-eligible teens with job opportunities, has placed more than 3,800 teens this summer.

In recent years, young workers have faced increased barriers to entry-level employment, said Raija Vaisanen, director of research at the Commonwealth Corp.

Some labor market analysts are expecting a slight increase in teen summer employment this summer.

“With unemployment as low as it is, this is the first year teens have more of an ability to get a job than in recent years past,” said Kelley French, youth careers director at the Marlborough-based Partnerships for a Skilled Workforce Inc. “Most jobs are in camps, food service and retail.”

Jon B. Hurst, president of the Massachusetts Association of Retailers, said the retail industry, which has traditionally employed large numbers of teens, faces some specific challenges that put teenage jobseekers at a disadvantage.

The state minimum wage, which is now $11 per hour, has risen significantly in recent years. That has made some employers less likely to take a chance on inexperienced teen workers with no track record, Hurst said. Additionally, the Massachusetts blue laws require that retail workers be paid time-and-a-half wages on Sundays and holidays.

“For 58 days a year, the minimum wage in Massachusetts, even for a teenager in retail store or a 15-year-old stocking the shelves, is not $11. It’s $16.50,” Hurst said.

He has long advocated for Massachusetts to adopt a separate, lower minimum wage for teen workers, something that more than three-dozen other states have done.

High competition

Although the situation has started to change in the past few years, the Great Recession saw larger numbers of older workers remain in the workforce, particularly in sectors such as retail and food service. That increased the competition for teens seeking employment.

“If faced with the choice between someone with documented work history against someone, a teen, who doesn’t have employment history, who are employers going to choose?” said Tom Perreira, director of the Bristol Workforce Investment Board.

With unemployment dropping in recent years and the labor market tightening, however, Perreira said new opportunities for teens may emerge.

One other challenge facing teens, however, is that areas of the labor market experiencing the highest rates of growth are centered around highly-skilled workers, he said.

With fewer teens today working part-time and seasonal jobs compared to previous generations, French said it will be important for school programs and partnerships to help students develop the types of skills they have traditionally learned in entry level jobs. Such skills and traits include communications, initiative and customer service.

“Young people these days are beginning to work later in life than several generations ago,” she said. “Child labor laws have continued to become stricter. The retirement age has risen. People may not well off and ready to retire at 65. Young people are so active in so many activities, they don’t necessarily begin to work early.”

Additionally, an increasing numbers of teens, particularly from higher income families, have been focused on college or career-oriented programs, according to Vaisanen.

French added teen job seekers must often also overcome a misperception they are lazy or have poor work ethics.

“We need to correct that perception that they don’t want to work,” she said. “They do, and there are some wonderful opportunities out there.”